


Go With The Flow

by Vanessa_Cocotea



Category: Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 04:45:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanessa_Cocotea/pseuds/Vanessa_Cocotea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From 2011:</p><p>Sometimes, you just have to tell the "experts" to push off!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Go With The Flow

He closed the book and laid it on top of the mountain of similar books jumbled on the floor of the TARDIS library. The Doctor had decided to try his hand at writing and had promised himself he'd have a complete short story done by morning. He'd started his venture by exploring everything in the TARDIS library on creative writing. It was quite a lot. Still, after some considerable contemplation, he'd decided on a subject and, according to what he'd read, began to gather his materials, including an ancient typewriter.

Sometime later, after several pots of decaff coffee - he was determined to stay awake, but he had no desire to be the kind of awake that regular coffee would make him, he contemplated the array of flowcharts, storyboards and things of neatly plotted scenes that looked like someone's family tree. Sighing, he sat down to write. He typed away and drank his decaff and ate buttered toast and everything seemed to be coming along swimmingly. He'd followed all the best advice he'd read about writing and the scenes were moving along quite well. Then he took a break to read what he'd written...

He was horrified! His wonderfully written story read like an instruction manual for some branch of the military! It was as though he'd played perfect notes, but there wasn't a shred of music anywhere! The story had no life to it, whatsoever. He felt like throwing everything - including the typewriter, clear across the room! Instead, he made himself more coffee and set about trying to make the story more alive...

Hours later, he was a wreck. He'd spent most of the time growling, uttering quite a few "linguistic indiscretions" in Gallifreyan, tearing up sheet after sheet of typing paper and was just about to forget the whole ridiculous business, when his eye caught one of the pictures on the library wall...

"Believe In Yourself and Just Go With The Flow"

He just sat staring into space, thinking, for quite some time. Then he got up, went to the kitchen, made himself a nice pot of Earl Grey, got himself a nice large slice of chocolate cake and went back to the library. Once there, he went to a cupboard in a corner of the vast room and got out a ream of foolscap paper, an inkwell, a fountain pen, and his lap desk, then sat down on the sofa. He drank his tea and ate his cake and thought. Then he slowly began to write, completely forgetting about all of the charts and storyboards and "family trees" and "expert advice"...

About an hour later, the Doctor looked at his newly-rewritten story - and smiled. He hadn't written notes and he hadn't written music. He'd written magic. His story had life and wonder and beauty and fascination in it. He grinned from ear to ear. He just felt so incredibly satisfied and proud! In fact, he felt so proud of his work, he spent the rest of the night making a proper cover for his story and binding it just like a book. He read the story over and over, amazed he could have written something so incredible.

Round about dawn, he looked up at the picture and, smiling, murmured, 'Thanks, old girl!'

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> I based the Doctor's coffee reactions on my own. As a fellow tea drinker, I react very strongly to coffee. If I even think about it, I get a little crazy. I only drink about two cups of coffee a year and then it's usually something like chocolate/raspberry decaff. It's been several years since I've had any regular coffee.


End file.
